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April 14, 2005

Speakeasy Nears WiMax Launch

By Nancy Gohring

According to Telephony magazine, Speakeasy is to launch its broadband wireless network in Seattle next month: Speakeasy announced last year that it had received an investment from Intel and would target Seattle for its first broadband wireless launch. Curiously, Speakeasy continues to hold out on revealing the name of its equipment vendor. I’ve asked a number of times and last year the company said it would release the name in November. I recently asked Speakeasy again for the name and was again told that they aren’t ready to spill the beans. I’m not quite sure why it’s such a secret.

Speakeasy is interested in WiMax as a way to reduce its reliance on other providers. Speakeasy mainly resells access from Covad. While working with Covad allows Speakeasy to avoid working with the major telcos, Covad has had its share of problems which likely proves worrisome for Speakeasy.

Outside of Seattle, Speakeasy says it will target markets it doesn’t already reach. It will pledge to turn on service for customers within 48 hours of an order, a major improvement over the landline players.

This article also points to rumors that the Intel investment in Speakeasy was around $3 million. Speakeasy claims that it was planning on building the Seattle network before the Intel investment.